Mokolodi Game Drive

"Mokolodi, a compact game park just a short distance outside Gaborone, can provide more than a glimpse of the bush and the game that frequents it.
"I went with Puso Kirby, the son of the park's founder, to let a bag of snakes loose in the wild. We walked along game paths, with Puso reeling off the names of the indigenous plants and their medicinal properties as we passed them. Then he opened the neck of his bag and casually took out a large cobra and a puff adder, putting them down on the ground and watching them move away into the undergrowth. Puso was born in this country, to white parents who came to Botswana from Zimbabwe. He could never live anywhere else, I suspect, because like just about everyone else I have met who has spent time in this country, he finds it impossible to be indifferent to it. Here was a man who was obviously in love with the place in which he lived."
Beguiled by Botswana By Alexander McCall Smith, NY Times Published: November 16, 2003

Peter and I decided to scout out the new neighborhood this a.m. and came upon a little Sat a.m. food and craft market only a few blocks from the house - right up my alley. We then walked to see the hospital and check out Peter's commute (probably a 10 minute walk). The sun and humidity is pretty intense (for Barbara anyway) and all the ladies use their umbrellas for the sun, but so far not much rain for the rainy season. After lunch we called our new favorite taxi driver, a man from Zimbabwe named Tendai (which means thanks in Setswana) who drove us about 10 miles out of town to a nature preserve called Mokolodi. This is a large sanctuary which provides a lot of nature and wildlife education - think Audubon in Botswana. We thought this would be a great first initiation to game drives before we head out for the safaris. We went out for about 2 hours in an open air truck and saw a surprising amount of game for a hot afternoon - probably not an ideal time for animal viewing - giraffes, zebras, cheetah, elephant, warthogs, wildebeast, impala, ostrich streched out over about 13,000 acres. Alas no crocodiles or hippos today - probably too warm. It was a great first look and also a great first workout for the binocs, camer and Flip camcorder - one of my favorite toys - thanks again Barbara T!